History of the United States Congress

In different periods of American history, the role of Congress shifted along with changing relations with the other branches of government and was sometimes marked by intense partisanship and other times by cooperation across the aisle.

This congress was given limited authority over foreign affairs and military matters, but not to collect taxes, regulate interstate commerce, or enforce laws.

Congress was in session in the state house from November 26, 1783, to June 3, 1784, and it was in Annapolis on December 23, 1783, that General Washington resigned his commission as commander-in-chief of the Continental Army.

[8] Arguments between federalists and anti-federalists about congressional scope, power, role, and authority happened before ratification of the Constitution and continue, to varying extents, to the present day.

Generally, the Constitution gave more powers to the federal government, such as regulating interstate commerce[9][10] [citation needed], managing foreign affairs and the military, and establishing a national currency.

Between 1792 and 1800 the struggle over Congress came between Alexander Hamilton's Federalist Party- which was popular through the successful First Bank of the United States, until 1792- and Thomas Jefferson's Democratic Republican Party.

Jefferson's party managed to finally gain control over the US House of Representatives after the 1792 elections, thanks in part to one of the top Federalists, James Madison, uniting with moderate Jefferson and prominent Anti-Federalists to form the Democratic Republican Party, as Madison became an opposer to Secretary of Treasury Alexander Hamilton's First Bank of the United States.

The House initiated impeachment in 1804, and the Senate tried but acquitted him, partially on the realization that while Chase's actions had been reprehensible, it was more important to preserve an independent judiciary.

As a result, Tyler's supporters helped give the Democrats control of the United States House of Representatives in the 1842 Congressional elections.

[24] In 1852, the divide between the pro-slavery southern Wings (who threw their support to Democratic candidate Franklin Pierce and broke with Henry Clay over the Compromise of 1850) and the anti-slavery Northern (who stood behind Clay's compromise and supported the party's nominee Winfield Scott) would also help give the Democrats not only control both houses of Congress, but also the US presidency as well.

[29] The Republicans however would regain control over Congress in the 1894 Congressional election; after President Cleveland and the Democrats continued to fail at bringing the US out of the depression started by the Panic of 1893; William McKinley also being elected US president in 1896 brought the US out of the depression started by the Panic of 1893, through his support of both big businesses[30] and high tariffs, and officially began the Progressive Era.

In the House of Representatives, the office of Speaker became extremely powerful under Thomas Reed in 1890, reaching its zenith under the Republican Joseph Gurney Cannon.

A revolt against Speaker Cannon in 1910, led by George Norris, strengthened the seniority system and made long-serving Congressmen more independent of party.

[32] In the 1910 midterm elections, the Democrats would regain control over the US House of Representatives once again, after the Panic of 1910–11 further shattered these uneasy relations between the conservative and progressive Republicans.

On October 29, 1929, a day known in history as Black Tuesday, the New York Stock Exchange experienced a significant crash and the United States, as well as most of the world, would enter a major recession.

[58] Despite this, Democratic Speaker of the House Sam Rayburn and Senate majority leader Alben Barkley, both allies of Roosevelt,[60][61] were able to maintain their positions.

[64] In the 1946 US Congressional election, the Republicans regained control of both the US Senate and US House of Representatives, as a result of President Truman failing to handle the vast post-war labor strikes.

Despite this huge victory, Eisenhower could not give the Republican Party control of Congress again; however, the conservative coalition still maintained a Congressional majority.

In 1964, with the success of President Johnson's Great Society policies, the Democrats regained enough seats in Congress to secure a two-thirds, veto-proof majority once again;[83] this victory would severely cripple the Conservative Coalition as well.

In 1972, Richard Nixon also set an electoral college record, by winning 49 states, after he gained popularity by: 1) establishing diplomacy with China; 2) organizing the SALT arms treaty with the Soviet Union; and 3) convincing the public that the Vietnam War was about over.

[90] Generally the next fifty years were marked by slim majorities in Congress, which some thinkers believe has led to more intense partisanship, and reflects a decline in an era when lawmakers from both sides of the aisle met in friendly discussions in an informally dubbed ground floor room in the Capitol called the Board of Education.

By the time the 1974 Congressional elections took place, Gerald Ford's popularity was severely damaged after he pardoned Nixon and could not get the U.S. economy out of an ongoing recession.

[94] In 1978, the Republicans erased the Democrats filibuster-proof, as well a two-thirds, majority by scoring a huge victory in the 1978 Congressional election, as a result of heavy inflation that spread throughout the country at the time.

[98] One source suggests post-Watergate laws amended in 1974 meant to reduce the "influence of wealthy contributors and end payoffs" instead "legitimized PACs" since they "enabled individuals to band together in support of candidates".

In the last few decades, the role of the media has become more prominent, and analyst Michael Schudson suggested that "more actions took place in a public arena" and caused "more roads to open up in Congress for individual representatives to influence decisions".

[5] Other academics have pointed out that pressure to squeeze a political position into a thirty-second soundbite means that it's difficult to explain things which require a "heavy burden of proof".

[122] In 2009, two former secretaries of State, one Republican, one Democrat, described America in 2009 as "riven with partisan bickering as we confront a range of serious threats – economic, political and military".

[123] Intense partisanship combined with ethics probes can be a potent concoction; for example, representative Tom DeLay was kicked out of the House based in part on his dealings with lobbyist Jack Abramoff.

With a 40-year high in inflation[127] and growing disapproval among U.S. voters about President Biden's performance,[128] expectations in late-2021 and early-2022 were that the GOP would reclaim control of both chambers in the 2022 elections.

In exchange, investors must agree to certain obligations, including a commitment to create jobs, make charitable donations, and purchase residential real estate, a law seen as unequal to Puerto Rican residents.

George W. Bush delivered his annual State of the Union address to a joint session of Congress on January 28, 2003, in the House chamber.
Painting of men in a room.
Congress Voting Independence , by Robert Edge Pine , depicts the Second Continental Congress voting in 1776.
John Shaw Flag (red first variation)
John Shaw Flag (white first variation)
Picture of a building with columns.
The Second Bank of the United States was the source of considerable controversy from the 1820s through 1840s.
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Henry Clay wielded great influence in the early Congress.
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The decisive defeat of the British by forces led by General Jackson made the warrior an American hero.
Picture of old uncompleted Capitol building.
The Capitol in 1841
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Uncle Sam's youngest son, Citizen Know Nothing . A bust portrait of a young man representing the nativist ideal of the Know Nothing party.
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Investors in 1873 clamber up the Fourth National Bank No. 20 Nassau Street hoping to get their money back.
Document.
The Seventeenth Amendment
The United States Capitol
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Champ Clark in 1912
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This era of Congress was dubbed the committee era and lasted approximately from the 1910s until the 1970s; much work was done in committees around tables like this one.
Two men in suits outside.
Willis C. Hawley (left) and Reed Smoot meeting shortly after the signing of the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act in 1929
Five men in suits behind a podium.
Congressman Jim Greenwood joins (left to right) Senators John McCain and Russ Feingold and Representatives Tim Roemer and Ellen Tauscher to endorse the McCain-Feingold campaign finance reform legislation.
Smiling suit.
House Majority Leader Tom DeLay was dubbed The Hammer for his enforcement of party discipline and retribution against those who did not support the legislative agenda of President George W. Bush.